Olde Hymns

It annoys me so, from time to time,
When those Olde Hymns just don’t rhyme.
It seems a rather awkward move,
To rhyme words like “Love” with words like “Prove”,
And to rhyme “Lord” with the word “Word”,
To me it just seems quite absurd,
Is there not a word around,
Which will make a similar sound?
It annoys me so, from time to time,
When those Olde Hymns just don’t rhyme.
Maybe their aim was just to be,
A pleasing read aesthetically,
And the writer was too proud,
To change the word when read aloud,
But surely a hymn must be sung,
And those lines don’t trip off the tongue.
It annoys me so, from time to time,
When those Olde Hymns just don’t rhyme.
Perhaps they simply didn’t say,
Those words the way we do today,
And that once upon a time,
Those pairs of words did make a rhyme,
We know our language has evolved,
So should the writers be absolved?
But it annoys me so, from time to time,
When those Olde Hymns just don’t rhyme.

Post Comments

Actually, I take the side of the hymn writers. Having done some versifying of the Psalms myself, I know how very difficult it is to stay close to the original meaning and yet have a poetic rhyme and flowing meter. When writing music to poetry, there is far less tolerance for deviations in the meter; therefore, in difficult cases a sort of rhyming word can be the best solution.

I know exactly what you mean. I've been known to compose a few worship songs myself using verses from the Bible as inspiration and I hold my hands up and admit, sometimes I use near-rhymes too, but even then I can't help but feel a little disappointed that there wasn't a suitable word which did rhyme.